Fearless, unorthodox, and irreverent scholar and activist Jay Michaelson shows how meditation and mindfulness have moved from ashrams and self-help groups to classrooms and hospitals, and offers unusually straight talk about the “Big E”— enlightenment. Michaelson introduces us to maverick brainhackers, postmodern Buddhist monks, and cutting-edge neuroscientists and shares his own stories of months-long silent retreats, powerful mystical experiences, and many pitfalls along the way. Evolving Dharma is a must-read for the next-generation meditator, the spiritually cynical, and the curious adventurer in all of us.

    Everyday Wicca presents a friendly and fascinating introduction to the art of spellcasting and a thoughtful survey of the Wiccan calendar, explaining the spiritual significance of the phases of the moon, the passing seasons, and holy days.Chapters include - Lunar Spellwork -- How working in harmony with the moon is essential to successful magick. - The Wheel of the Year -- The Eight Sabbats celebrated, as well as sacred God/dess days. - The Rainbow of Magick -- The power of color in spellcasting. - The Magick of Incense -- The importance of incense in spellcasting. - An A-to-Z glossary of Wiccan terms. - The power of poetry in casting spells.Additionally, the book provides spells and magickal rites to be performed throughout the year. With Everyday Wicca in hand, readers, whether an experienced witch or an uninitiated novice, can learn to incorporate magick into all aspects of their lives.

    Magazine and consciousness raising. As the post-World War II era of peace, prosperity, and pointy bras gives way to the life-expanding changes of the women’s movement, four women meet and over the course of two decades, create a space that allows them all to thrive, with humor and irreverence, as they each struggle to reconcile the realities of adult life with the expectations of youth. “Virginia DeLuca’s captivating novel, 'As If Women Mattered', fuses compelling social drama with page-turning storytelling. Four women, whose consciousness-raising group becomes a life-long, life-saving family of the heart, wrestle with marriage, motherhood, careers and sex, during a time when no one knew the rules anymore, and it was all up for grabs. The entwined stories of these women will keep you up way past midnight, experiencing the extraordinary era when women rose up and found their voices, and each other.” Randy Susan Meyers, International Bestselling Author of "The Murderer’s Daughters" and "The Comfort of Lies" “'As If Women Mattered' takes me vividly back to my own experiences in the early second-wave women’s movement and, in its characters’ lives, highlights many of the dynamics and issues that made those years so fascinating, so fraught and so fruitful. Thank you especially, Ginny DeLuca, for following the ongoing friendship between these four women over time.” Wendy Sanford, cofounder and coauthor, "Our Bodies, Ourselves"

    Although little is known about Patanjali (most scholars estimate that he lived in India circa 200–300 b.c.), his writings have long been recognized as a vital contribution to the philosophy and practice of yoga. This new, expert translation of the original Sanskrit text of Patanjali’s best-known work presents his seminal ideas and methods in accessible, plain-language English. Patanjali organized the sutra into four parts: Samadhi (absorption), Sadhana (practice), Vibhuti (supernatural powers), and Kaivalya (liberation). Each represents a step in breaking free of our limited definition of consciousness and training the mind to achieve oneness with the universe. Geshe Michael Roach, one of the most respected teachers of Tibetan Buddhism in America and a renowned scholar of Sanskrit, provides authoritative commentary on each of the sutras. His notes and clarification are straightforward and highly readable, untainted by obscure, academic terminology or New Age jargon. The first edition of the Yoga Sutra to present a Buddhist perspective, this paperback original will be welcomed by students and spiritual seekers alike.

    Mindfulness can help us relax and is great for coming to grips with thoughts that make us  depressed or anxious, but it can also bring us into a more intimate relationship with ourselves--a prospect that can make some feel uncomfortable. Yes, lots of good things come out of meditation practice, but keeping it up is challenging. This is where Why Can't I Meditate? comes in. Full of practical ways to help our mindfulness practice flourish, it also features guidance from a wide spectrum of secular and Buddhist mindfulness teachers, and personal accounts by new meditators on what they find difficult and what helps them overcome those blocks. It takes what is boring, painful, or downright scary about meditating and shows how these struggles can become an invaluable part of our path. If you have been considering meditating but doubted your ability, if you are having a hard time continuing, or if you've reluctantly stopped, Why Can't I Meditate? will help you get your mindfulness practice back on track.

    This guide to the history and modern celebrations of Ostara shows you how to perform rituals and work magic to renew your power and passion for living and growing. Rituals Recipes Lore Spells Divination Crafts Correspondences Invocations Prayers MeditationsLlewellyn's Sabbat Essentials explore the old and new ways of celebrating the seasonal rites that are the cornerstones of the witch's year.

    This inspiring and intimate guide through the complex emotions of menopause helps to create new ritual and meaning for this significant passage in a woman's life.

    How wrong he was. In SOLD TO THE MAN WITH THE TIN LEG Philip describes his extraordinary experiences as a country auctioneer, aided and abetted by some of the most colourful characters Worcestershire has to offer. From dodgy cars to fakes in the saleroom; angry livestock, mangled silverware and tortuous not to mention muddy experiences in local markets and farm sales, Philip has been there, done that and got the hoofprints on his suit to prove it. And of course, there's the return of Big Nige, 'One Bid' Church and Philip's tin-legged boss...

    You don’t have to do anything to deserve all the love in the world.Real Love is a creative tool kit of mindfulness exercises and meditation techniques that help you to truly engage with your present experience and create deeper love relationships with yourself, your partner, friends and family, and with life itself.Sharon Salzberg, a leading expert in Lovingkindness[GR1] meditation, encourages us to strip away layers of negative habits and obstacles, helping us to experience authentic love based on direct experience, rather than preconceptions. Across three sections, Sharon explains how to dispel cultural and emotional habits, and direct focused care and attention to recapture the essence of what it is to love and be loved.With positive reflections and practices, Sharon teaches us how to shift the responsibilities of the love that we give and receive to rekindle the powerful healing force of true connection. By challenging myths perpetuated by popular culture, we can undo the limited definitions that reduce love to simply romance or passion, and give the heart a much needed tune-up to connect ourselves to the truest experience of love in our daily lives.

    Author Christine Toomey, a veteran foreign correspondent, takes the reader from Kathmandu to the Cascades to meet these very diverse daughters of Buddha. Some left happy marriages, others dynamic careers, each looking for fulfillment through mindfulness and a deepened consciousness.

    Combining earthly wisdom with spiritual enlightenment, it describes how to live each moment to the full and shows the relevance of Zen to every aspect of life.

    Every other skill will fall short in helping you remember your real nature. This book reveals the closely guarded secret of wise men and women.Few greater gifts can be given to someone than to learn how to truly develop a method to grasp their own consciousness and unlock a remarkable scope of understanding of both themselves and the universe. Life-changing books are few in number, but here is one that conveys a remarkable breakthrough. No one will be the same after absorbing the contents of this mind-enlarging volume.

    This thought-provoking and engaging guide is filled with a wide range of practical information and step-by-step plans for beginning your study and personal practice, including: - Exploring the connection between spirituality and sexuality- Meditating and creating sacred spaces- Finding rituals and deities that are right for you- Manifesting your desires through magic- Living a joyful, purposeful life- Eight original stories inspired by the Wiccan Sabbats- And so much more

    No question, anyone reading this has won the evolutionary Hunger Games by the fact you're on all twos and not some fossil. This should make us all the happiest species alive - most of us aren't, what's gone wrong? We've started treating ourselves more like machines and less like humans. We're so used to upgrading things like our iPhones: as soon as the new one comes out, we don't think twice, we dump it. (Many people I know are now on iWife4 or iHusband8, the motto being, if it's new, it's better.)We can't stop the future from arriving, no matter what drugs we're on. But even if nearly every part of us becomes robotic, we'll still, fingers crossed, have our minds, which, hopefully, we'll be able use for things like compassion, rather than chasing what's 'better', and if we can do that we're on the yellow brick road to happiness.I wrote this book with a little help from a monk, who explains how the mind works, and also gives some mindfulness exercises, and a neuroscientist who explains what makes us 'us' in the brain. We answer every question you've ever had about: evolution, thoughts, emotions, the body, addictions, relationships, kids, the future and compassion. How to be Human is extremely funny, true and the only manual you'll need to help you upgrade your mind as much as you've upgraded your iPhone

    And it inspired two close friends to get together in Dharamsala for a talk about something very important to them. The friends were His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The subject was joy. Both winners of the Nobel Prize, both great spiritual masters and moral leaders of our time, they are also known for being among the most infectiously happy people on the planet.From the beginning the book was envisioned as a three-layer birthday cake: their own stories and teachings about joy, the most recent findings in the science of deep happiness, and the daily practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives. Both the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu have been tested by great personal and national adversity, and here they share their personal stories of struggle and renewal. Now that they are both in their eighties, they especially want to spread the core message that to have joy yourself, you must bring joy to others.Most of all, during that landmark week in Dharamsala, they demonstrated by their own exuberance, compassion, and humor how joy can be transformed from a fleeting emotion into an enduring way of life.